The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-08-13
SUBSCRIPTIONS
BAKU'S FOUNTAINS.
TIE PERSIAN RIVAL OF PENNSYL-
VANlA'S PETROLEUM FIELDS.

a Great Town Built Upon the Spot Here
tofore Held Sacred by the Fire Wor-
Shipping Ghebres-TweIve Thousand
Square Miles of OIL Region.
The great town of Baku has now
coast line of about six miles, sweeping
around Il well protected harbor crowded
with shipping-ships of all tonnage, all
fitted with tanks to store the oil that
pours from hundred fountains. From
time immemorial this spot has been
deemed sacred 10y the Ghebres of Persia,
who recognize in the flame of the native
naphtha sacred fire symbol. Here for at
least >, 600 years the sacred earth fed flame
has burned increasingly, and the temple
of Surukhani has been center OF rever-
ent pilgrimage. This native naphtha flows
from the soil in 50 pure form as To burn
without rectitiCat on, and is, indeed, so in
tiammable that the naphtha gas Occas-
ionally iCuites spontaneously and plays
in pale flames above assures in the rock.
On stormy nights these flames have been
seen to blaze up with an awful spirit
light which, TO the eyes of the Ghebres,
invested the spot with special sauctity-a
sanct.,y intensified by the fact that here,
according to Arabian chroniclcrS, a great
volcanic mountain was in fun action till
500 years ago. Since then the thermal
forces have expended their energies on
spouting oil and Herewith saturaung the
desert plain of the Aspheros peninsula;
and truly a more repulSive site for great
city could not we'll he found.
1t is plain about fifteen miles in width
and projecting thirty miles into the Cas-
plan from the point where the Caucasus
terminates on its shores. The whole sur
face of the ground is black with waste
petroleum, which in cold weather hardens
to the consistency Of asphalt whereas be
meath the blazing midsummer sun the
foot sinks in to the depth OF two or three
inches. Every breath of wind raises
binding clouds of black, biuminous dust,
formed by the coarse black naphtha with
which the streets are periodically wa
tered. a" true water being too precious TO
be thus wasted 1Ss dust, combined
with the dense smoke poured from the
chimneyS of somewhere about 800 retin-
ing factories, does nothing to improve the
atmosphere And here, day and night,
the oil fountains pour forth their hideous
black streams. They yield an average of
from % to 30 per cent of pure oil, and
from 20 To 30 per cent. of refuse, which
makes excellent fuel for the great fleets
Of oil steamers and locomotives The
supply may well be deemed inexhaUsuble,
inasnuch as 1900 square miles in this
region are found to be OleiferOuS, and of
this vast surface only six miles have as
yet been developed. The oil bearing
stratum extends beneath the Caspian,
where it crops up in Tehelikan, a true isle
OF oil. Here the oil literally streams into
the sea from hills and cliffs, which may be
said to be formed of Ozokerite-in other
words, of crude paratfine. On the eastern
shore of the Caspian it reappears at various
points, as, for instance. at the Nett or
Naphtha hill, where the deposits are Of
ticially valued at e35, 600, 600
THE FIRE GIANTS SPORT.
Now, the fire giant who tends the great
laboratory beneath the Caspian seems to
emulate the example of his brethren in
New Zealand and Tonga. Hitherto he has
been satisfied with such sport as turning
on such an oil stream as that which gushed
forth three years ago from one of the
Baku springs, spOuting with such force as
to break to pieces q three inch cast iron
pipe which had been fastened over the
wei in order to divert the flow to a diff
tereut direction. \ neighbOring oil spring
on being tapped, threw up a column OF
petroleum 10 twice the height of the
Great Geyser in Iceland, forming a huge
black fountain goo feet in height-a fOun-
tain, however, attributed solely to the re-
moval of the pressure on the confined gas,
us tLGEC Is no DCkCSp NAOAG neat III lIlCSC
geysers. 1t was visible for many miles
around, and on the first day it poured
forth about 5O,0 600 barrels, and, with
gradually diminishing volume, continued
10 play for five months, when it finally
subsidized, leaving its unfortunate owners
IAN Armenian company well nigh ruined
by the claims brought against ii by neigh
bors whose lands were destroyed by the
oil flood
On the night of the 18th of January
the inhabitants of Bal-u were awakened
by a violent shock, which caused all the
windows 70 rattle. and suddenly the dark
ness of the night was Illuminated by an
intense light, as though the city were
reflection on the heavens of a great fire
at a distance; but no one dreamt that its
locality lay within the earth. Nor was
this realized till the following night, when
the same awful glare became visible; and
shortly before midnight a terrible eXplo-
sion was heard, followed by vast column
OF flame, apparently $50 feet in height,
which shot up from the summit OF LOl1
Batau. close to the POuta railway station.
II was a calm night, with scarcely a
breath Of wind, so the flames continued
to ascend quite vertically, carrying large
masses OF dark matter, which fell back
into the crater. Considerable heat was
felt at the distance of fully a mile, and
the whole country was lighted by q glare
brighter than that of the sun at monday.
This lasted for about thirty houks but
not continuously. the column occasionally
subsiding The volume Of hGu4,( mud